


Reverse

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-27
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-16 07:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/859777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erica likes New York. The crowds of people, the fashionable stores with big windows to stare into longingly, the way no one pays attention to you when you walk down the street, the way no one knows her... Boyd's reasons for liking New York are simpler. It's safe. It's safe for him, and more importantly, safe for Erica, and that's all he needs.... They won't be going back, they don't think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I was having Erica and Boyd feels, about how I wish they'd gone off to some city and had a happy life there, so I started, and ended up with this thing... Warning: It's unbeta'd.

      Erica likes New York. The crowds of people, the fashionable stores with big windows to stare into longingly, the way no one pays attention to you when you walk down the street, the way no one knows her. They're living in another abandoned subway station, visiting shelters to shower. They've got some money, for food, mostly, even if they don't need to buy much—there are lots of small animals in the suburbs. Squirrel is surprisingly appetizing to a wolf.

     Erica likes not having an alpha, not enduring painful training sessions filled with negative reinforcement. She likes the lack of pressure—learning control at their own pace, without the worry that they could be dead any day.

     Boyd's reasons for liking New York are simpler. It's safe. It's safe for him, and more importantly, safe for Erica, and that's all he needs.

     Neither of them miss their families much, or Beacon Hills. Sometimes they wonder how Isaac is doing, and hope that Derek hasn't gotten him killed. They won't be going back, they don't think.

* * *

     They get into some trouble with a pack, but after explaining that they mean no harm, they are allowed to stay, as long as they defer to the authority of the pack's alpha. Erica doesn't like it, but she agrees, and they stay.

     Boyd likes his job, working on construction sites across the city. He doesn't have to talk much, and his supernatural strength comes in handy. Erica sells make-up at a department store. She's good at it, and sometimes she gets samples.

     They've got an apartment, furnished with cheap IKEA furniture. Erica's decorated with dried flowers, and Boyd tries to remember to bring her back fresh ones at least once a week, which she puts on the tiny kitchen table in a jar. There are laundry facilities in the basement, which Erica loves because she doesn't have to drag clothes through the street. Every Thursday evening, they sit in front of their laptop (a cheap one they bought from the department store where Erica works) and fold their laundry.

     They aren't together, not exactly, but they aren't not together either. When Erica's coworkers invite her to a party, she brings Boyd, and neither of them corrects anyone when they call him her boyfriend. For the first few years, Erica sometimes goes out and dances on her own, picking up boys the way she did her last few months in Beacon Hills. Slowly, she stops bringing people home. Boyd starts coming with her sometimes, and they attract jealous attention as they dance together.

* * *

     Anna is born four years after they leave Beacon Hills. Her skin is a few shades lighter than Boyd's, and when she gets hair, it's curly. She has a stuffed kitty that one of the people Boyd plays football with (it's a recreational league, but Boyd is good at it, and they all like him and don't care that he doesn't talk much) gave her. She loves it, and Erica still laughs when she sees it. Her first word is “wolf”, but “mommy” and “daddy” come close behind. Her first full moon is nerve wracking, but they think that it must be easier for born wolves, because she becomes a gorgeous sleek black wolf pup, and curls up to sleep most of the night.

     Erica sings to Anna, lullabies her mother sang, before Erica's illness drove a wedge between them. Boyd enjoys taking Anna to the park, where he sits, and watches her play on the swings. He's attractive, and the mothers like to try and get him to chat, but he remains focused on his child, making sure she doesn't shift in excitement. She never does.

* * *

     They've been gone for seven years when Boyd says he needs to go visit his mother. Erica sighs, and says she'll take some time off work (she's a manager now). They pack suitcases and call Anna's daycare to say she'll be out for a bit. Anna smiles at them, and asks where they're going. They tell her they're going home, and then look at each other, startled. Beacon Hills can't be home, but somehow it still is. Anna accepts the answer, and she loves the plane ride, and the excitement of the busy New York airport.

     They rent a car and drive from San Francisco to Beacon Hills. The traffic is terrible. They'd forgotten how much California traffic sucked, and in New York, they'd always walked or taken the subway. Anna, thankfully, is amused by a puzzle they bought her at the airport, and doesn't fuss at all.

     When they pull up in front of Boyd's house, he breathes in deeply, and Erica squeezes his hand in encouragement. He goes to the door first. When his mother opens the door, she doesn't believe her eyes. But she's quick to pull him into her arms, and when Erica and Anna come up, she pulls them in just as tightly, and maybe, they think, maybe they weren't wrong to call this home.

     Erica's parents, it turns out, have left town, but she doesn't really care. This visit was for Boyd, really. Because Boyd doesn't ask for things enough, so when he does, she gives them to him.

     They decide to go see if they can find Isaac—they think he's alive, they couldn't find anything online about him dying, but with werewolves that didn't always mean much.

     They see Derek in the grocery store, with a pretty, fidgety woman with brown hair. She's talking a mile a minute (like Stiles sometimes did), but Derek actually seems to be smiling at her. They don't go to him. They doubt he would want to see him.

     They see the Sheriff, who tells them he's glad they're alive. They ask after Stiles politely, and find out that he's working on a masters degree at MIT, and engaged to Lydia Martin. They congratulate the Sheriff, not especially surprised that Lydia finally gave Stiles a chance. Erica asks curiously about Jackson, who the Sheriff tells them is living in London. With Danny Mahealani—they're “not” together, the Sheriff mentions, in a way that means that they are, just not admitting it.

     They find Isaac. He's in a park, sitting on a bench, with _Allison Argent_. They're shocked, and Boyd nearly shifts. Only Erica's warning claws in his wrist stop him. Allison has a child asleep on her lap, a little girl in a frilly pink dress. Neither of them can imagine Allison choosing it, but they never knew her very well, they reflect. Isaac is laughing at something Allison said, his head thrown back, with a carefree expression that is quite different from the feral grin Erica remembers.

     There's a man walking up to Isaac and Allison, trying to juggle four ice creams and a small boy. The boy is also holding an ice cream. The man is Scott, they realize, finally grown into his intense features. Isaac jumps up to help him, taking the little boy from his arms and setting him on the bench. Scott hands Isaac an ice cream, and Allison two, and he and Isaac both sit back on the bench. Allison wakes the little girl and gives her the ice cream. Scott has his arm over Isaac's shoulders, and Isaac is looking at Allison as she talks, his expression like she hung the moon, and Erica and Boyd have no idea what happened to the dynamics of _that_ relationship, but Boyd picks up Anna, and they walk nervously toward the trio and the children.

     Isaac sees them first, a look of disbelief coming to his face. He can't believe it's them, they can tell, but he _wants_ to. Scott's nose flares, and they can tell he's checking their scent, relief filling his eyes when he finds the faint familiarity. Scott and Isaac come to greet them, hugging them. Isaac gets ice cream in Erica's hair. Anna introduces herself, put out at the lack of attention, and immediately starts poking at Scott's jaw.

     Allison stays back—the last time she saw them, she had shot Boyd full of arrows. But they'd seen how Isaac looked at her, and they trust Isaac, still, even if they hadn't seen him for seven years—he's still family, still almost a sibling, a “litter mate”. So Erica motions for Allison to come, and she brings the kids. The boy, up close, looks like a miniature Chris Argent, but with Scott's eyes, and the effect is startling. His name is Camden, they're told. He's five. The girl has curls like Isaac's trailing down her back, and wide blue eyes. Her name is Julia, and she's four. She's shy, but Anna likes her, and Julia seems to realize. The two girls sit at their parents' feet, playing quietly.

     “Have you seen Derek?” Isaac asks. They both hang their heads, the shame of having abandoned their alpha still raw, an instinct deeper even than survival. Isaac looks like he understands.

     “No,” Erica responds.

     “You should.” The words come from Allison, to their surprise. “We have dinner there, once a week. We're going tomorrow. Come.” It feels like a peace offering, both from Allison and the pack as a whole. Boyd and Erica look at each other.

     “OK.”

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone likes this, I might write that dinner. I've got a few ideas for it already. 
> 
> Some of the pairings in this aren't the ones I normally ship (Stydia, for example, is a brOTP of mine, not so much an OTP) but they felt like they fit.


End file.
